Institute for Transportation

Historically, the design of bridge railing systems had been based on static-load design criteria. In recent years, the focus of design criteria has turned toward full-scale crash testing as a means of evaluating the acceptability of bridge railing. For timber to be a viable material for bridges, railing systems that meet full-scale, crash-test criteria must be developed for timber decks. This paper describes current research on the development and full-scale crash testing of bridge railing systems for timber decks.